"Boom! Rumble! Rumble! The powerful 32-pounder long-barreled guns let out a trembling roar, and the boilers of the four battleships of the East Fleet had been heating up for more than half an hour, and the sails were also rapidly adjusted with the assistance of steam power, seizing the T-head at a speed far more flexible than the Spanish fleet, and then using the side guns to bombard the Spanish four-masted battleships that rushed forward in turn.

32-pound, 24-pound, and 18-pound shells rained down, mixed with some chain shells and red-hot shells, and the Spaniards' largest battleship, the Santiago, was quickly ravaged by four battleships on the east coast, and the superstructure was hit in many places, and the bow and stern were directly hit by more than 20 shells.

How can the bulky "Santiago" be able to fight the enemy with only 4 bow guns, but the enemy has more than 100 guns attacking her. So, on the orders of the captain, the "Santiago" began to turn downwind to the northeast, trying to attack the enemy ship with broadside fire. But the captain of the ship, Martin. Ledron. Morality. Guevara soon discovered to his horror that the strange ships emitting black smoke had quickly begun to turn with the movements of the "Santiago", and plunged like a sharp knife into the gap between the "Santiago" and the brig "Santa Maria" and the powerful battleship "San Salvador" with 50 guns, and then began a terrifying salvo of the whole ship.

"Your Excellency, Commander, they are sailing too fast. It is unbelievable that it can reach speeds of more than 4 knots in the Tyrrhenian Sea without a tailwind, which must be pagan magic. On board the "Santiago", a Spanish officer suddenly shouted uncontrollably. And his words quickly caused a ripple effect among the surrounding crowd. Many people's faces became a little nervous.

Not really. Since last month, two locations in the port of Cádiz and Cartagena have reported the simultaneous discovery of fleets of people from the east coast. The Spaniards immediately began to report to the king, who was now stationed in Valladolid. The king's response was simple: to destroy this daring fleet and let them know the fate of offending the Kingdom of Spain. The Mediterranean Fleet, which had received the king's response, sprang into action, mobilizing several capital warships (supported by the Atlantic Fleet and the Dutch Fleet) and a large number of small transports, carrying nearly 2,000 troops, and proceeding straight to the port of Naples.

After arriving in Naples, he gathered more than 1,000 Neapolitan troops and a large number of Mediterranean galleys, and then marched to Pisa and Livorno. Prepare to encircle the East Coast Fleet. They did not know how large the East Fleet was, and they received a report from the captain of the frigate "St. Nicholas", who had fled back to Cádiz, who reported that the East Coasters "had at least 6-8 large ships as far as he could see." This made Baron Guevara, who had participated in the Battle of the Downs and had just been transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet, determined to use the calm Mediterranean Sea to wipe out all the intruders on the East Coast. Even with the help of a large number of galleys, it was not impossible to capture one or two enemy ships.

Although the Mediterranean Fleet had been wiped out at the Battle of the Dons a few years earlier, the King had also encountered financial difficulties in recent years as the Genoese bankers continued to withdraw from the Spanish economy, and he had no money to rebuild the Mediterranean Fleet. However, with some of the ships replenished from the South Netherlands and the Atlantic Fleet, the Mediterranean Fleet finally recovered a little bit of strength. In particular, the flagship of the Spanish Navy during the Battle of the Downs, the "Santiago", with a displacement of 1,200 tons and sixty light and heavy guns, was also transferred to the Mediterranean. The arrival of this sea monster, arguably one of the most formidable warships in Spain and even in all of Europe, gave Baron Guevara confidence in victory.

But after actually getting into the fight. Baron Guevara, who was the commander and commander-in-chief of the fleet, wanted nothing more than to hang the captain of the "St. Nicholas" who "lied about the military situation". God, they have four ships as powerful as the "Santiago", no, the number and caliber of artillery are stronger, and the range is stronger than that of the Spanish Navy. Moreover, it can be seen that their naval training is far more frequent than that of the Spanish navy, which can be seen from the frequency and accuracy of their artillery fire. These two indicators cannot be faked, and there is no shortcut to improvement, only to rely on a lot of training, and this often means a lot of money - but the Spanish Navy has no money.

Four enemy warships were inserted diagonally into the Spanish fleet formation in a straight column, splitting a total of 36 Spanish ships in half. Each of these four battleships has 8 terrifying 32-pounder guns and 12 24-pounder guns, while the mainstream guns of the Spanish Navy are 8-pounder and 12-pounder, and the number of 18-pounder guns is very small, and the average large warship will have 2-4 guns, as for the 24-pounder naval guns, only the "Santiago" has 4 guns. With such a huge difference in firepower, the fleet of the people on the east coast slashed into the butter like a hot sharp knife, and lightly cut through the opponent's formation.

The four main battleships of the guerrilla fleet led by the "10 August" fired at the "Virgin Mary" and "San Salvador" on the left with their starboard guns, while the starboard guns continued to bombard the bow of the "Santiago," which was clumsily turning, and smashed its bow to pieces, causing many casualties among the Spanish naval officers and men.

The "10 August" did not stop after firing, but continued to move forward at full speed, heading straight for the "San Miguel" and "San Francisco" directly ahead, while on the left and right of these two battleships, three or four two-masted battleships were hurriedly trying to get closer, intending to encircle the battleship formation of the people on the east coast so that it would not penetrate the entire Spanish fleet and break into the array of galleys and small transports in the rear.

After the "10 August" assaulted forward, the "Free Trade" that followed closely behind also fired several salvos under the command of Captain Guo Zili, and one of the chain bullets hit the canvas of the "Santiago" firmly, opening a big gap in it. A fiery bomb wrapped in tin foil also hit the spinnaker of the "San Salvador" on the left side, causing it to burst into flames, but the Spaniards were well prepared and quickly lowered the sail and quickly extinguished the fire.

It was only after the four ships on the east coast had swept at high speed that the "Santiago" finally completed its turn. To Baron Guevara's dismay, however, his ship had just adjusted its course to north-east, when a second wave of the easterners' assault fleet struck again. The assault flotilla, led by the double-deck battleship "Cadiz Rocks" with 44 cannons, again plunged diagonally into this gap, followed by four frigate gunboats with a total of 140 guns and a strong fire again launched a heavy shelling of the "Santiago", "Santa Maria" and "San Salvador".

At this time, the clumsy and tragic "Santiago" was about 30 degrees north-east, while the "Virgin Mary" and "San Salvador" could only drift slowly on the sea because of the wrong wind and current, and their captain was sweating profusely and directing the sailors to turn in order to catch up and surround the four battleships on the east coast that were rushing left and right in their formation. However, after seeing the second wave of the assault fleet coming, the two ships wisely stopped turning and began to fire at the east coast assault fleet with their port guns. However, the firepower of the East Coast Fleet was too dense and the gunners were better trained than the Spaniards, so the "Virgin Mary" was quickly broken in the mast, and the midmast canvas was also largely damaged, forcing it to withdraw from the battle.

While several of Spain's most powerful warships were a little dizzy by the two waves of surprise attacks on the east coast, a huge fleet of 17 transport ships finally advanced rapidly in the smoke of gunpowder that filled the sea, trying to break away from the entire battlefield.

Even though the sea was full of smoke and blurred vision, the Spaniards still guessed the idea of the East Coasters, and the "Santiago" simply opened its sails, wedged into the convoy of transports on the east coast under the impetus of the westerly wind, and forced the six East Coast flutes to change course, preparing to bypass the area of engagement from the southeast, and then flee.

The "Santiago" turmoil suddenly gave rise to many variables in the East Coast fleet's plan to break through. The four frigate gunboats that served as the rear guard began to meet the attack, taking the initiative to block the attack of the "Santiago", and their four ships with a total of 96 guns aimed at the "Santiago" and the "San Nicolas" and "San Nicolas" from the rear. Juan. The Baptista fought to the death to buy time for the rapid withdrawal of the merchant fleet.

More than 20 warships on both sides engaged in a life-and-death battle in the Tyrrhenian Sea, and for a time the sea surface was covered with smoke from artillery fires, and even with the sea breeze blowing, visibility was still very low. This situation is obviously very unfavorable to the convoy on the east coast, which is determined to break through, because then the ships may lose contact with each other and fall into a scuffle. In particular, those flute-type transports, each with only 4-6 small and medium-caliber guns, could not fight at all, and if they encountered the other side's galleys or small transports full of army soldiers, they might be captured.

Under such circumstances, the formation of battleships, which had just broken through the formation of the Spanish fleet and rushed to the periphery, had to give up the temptation to ravage the opposing galleys, and instead turned against the wind with a small radius on the right side that shocked the Spaniards, and then turned back towards the Spaniards' "St. Nicholas" and "St. Nicholas" and "St. Nicholas" and St. Nicholas. Juan. The Baptista was killed, intending to get rid of the two little bugs before relieving the merchant fleet. However, in this way, the plan of the east coast escort fleet to quickly break through and leave was put on hold, and a breakthrough battle turned into a war of attrition in the position. (To be continued......)